Well .. that's just some sand.. in my eye.. I wonder if the snails can mail the spores or catch them from the air?? What do they like to eat fungi wise?Okay... Hook Line and Shooter. I'm gonna find out what they can munch on for ages.

- Where did you walk in the natural area?
I walked from the parking lot about 300 yards past the playground to the hiking trail entrance and walked a short ways on the trail
- What are the landscape characteristics you walked through?
There was a small creek that ran through the park but mainly I was just on a slightly sloped dirt trail
- Are there are lot of shrubs, trees, grasses, wildflowers?
There were mainly shrubs but some occasional tall trees
Hilly or flat?
- The park was mainly flat but the hiking trail had a an uphill slope to it
Is there a body of water nearby?
Yes a small creek
What plant communities do you think you were in?
Chaparral?

May 27th, 2020 (Wednesday) 9:30 am – 11:30 am: no newts today! This is the first day with no newts, except for 2 weeks ago, where there were no newts, but then the road had been scrapped so they might have been removed.
It was already getting warm when I started, when I was done it was really hot. The whole week has been hot, no rain (but it might rain this Saturday).
Other roadkills - small frog (possibly a tree frog), a few honey bees, many darkling beetles, ants, crickets. Jerusalem cricket, harvestman. Also Western Whiptail - looked very fresh, and there was a live individual right next to it (not on the road). It's the first time I've seen them around this road.
Coverage: north part - the county park parking lot till the second stop sign.
Rainfall: (MTD: 1.18 in; YTD: 21.65 in). Data from - http://www.weathercat.net/wxraindetail.php
Traffic: 10 truck, 24 cars, 17 bikes, 1 motorcycle, 6 pedestrians. I saw a road-sweeping truck parked by the side of the road not too far away from the boat club.
All county park parking lots were open, no street parking near the first County Park parking lot.

It was a Tuesday afternoon. I knew I had to get this assignment done but I wanted to go to a place where I could escape. Life has been hectic, and as I was driving around I thought of the perfect place. The iconic Pirates Cove in San Luis Obispo. Pirates cove is a beach, but in order to get to the beach you have to walk down this rocky cliff that is filled with different types of plants. I walked around for about half a miles, observing nature and enjoying being out in the sun. When you look up all you see is the entire ocean, rocky cliffs, and seagulls flying past you. Stunning. At the trailhead, I came across a Peruvian Peppertree, which are beautiful to me. Of course I came across some poison oak while walking down to the beach, and the trail was lined with sagebrush. The soil was dry, but the plants were plentiful. I couldn't keep my eyes off the view, if you have never been to pirates cove I heavily suggest it.

I have no clue if this will ever be read, but Im going to take this time to reflect on what it is about nature that is so calming, enjoyable, and what it does for me. Recently this year my mom was diagnosed with cancer that was not curable. I was living a life that was pretty much tragedy free, so I was not fully prepared for this, although I would argue no one would be at my age or really ever. In figuring out my emotions on this topic, working through the situation, and finding a sense of peace the only place I could ever do that was in nature. I think nature has a very unique way of connecting us to life. We can understand how we are all connected to this bigger picture. Plants, humans, and life comes and goes, but just as plants leave their seeds, so do humans. Humans spend their whole time running from the idea of mortality, but there is almost a selflessness and beauty to mortality. We are making room for the new and unique species to come. Hopefully leaving the world in a better place. Natures vastness makes us feel small, yet at the same times gives us hope that we are apart of something greater than ourselves.

So on Tuesday I went back to my muse. I was stressed, worried about the future, and quite honestly a bit lost. Yet again nature had a way of pointing me back to a place that was outside of my own head. It pointed me at an ocean that stretched beyond my eyesight, to plants that have been around longer than all of us, to seagulls flying over head, and ultimately it grounded me back in the present moment. Nature is a constant reminder to take yourself a little less seriously, to enjoy the world we live in, to be present, and ultimately to respect life for what it is. Good.

It was always as easy as walking out of school and into the forest with my students. I can still do that. My students can still do that. We just can't be walking side by side. So lets put the tech to work and stay physically distant, but try to feel socially connected.

I will take daily walks "with" my students on Google Meet. We will use this project in iNaturalist to learn about and share what we observe.

My hope is that I can serve as a companion to my students as they explore the natural world and together we can discover, ask questions, learn, but most of all, be overcome with wonder.

What is your hope for this project?

Thank you to everyone who participated in our May Weekend Walkabout Series! May had some great weather and some amazing organisms. I hope you all had the chance to get outside and start exploring your neighborhood!

There is this river in my woods, it is very long and goes for many miles. I know this because I tracked it on Google maps. It seems to start from a big body of water in Gardner than makes its way here into Winchendon and it connects to many other little streams and brooks. It then branches off and heads into Baldwinville and Athol and also into Waterville. Anyways me and a friend decided to follow the river a little ways. There were yellow warblers, common yellowthroats, broad winged hawk, chimmney swifts, tree swallow, song sparrows, white throated sparrows, red winged blackbirds,cedar waxwings, warbling vireo, a blue mystery warbler,chickadees, red breasted nuthatch and bluejays, yellow rumped warblers and ovenbirds ( i callled another one out haha) There was also a female black and white warbler with food in it's beak. There were some lady's slippers, (I have heard it is a big year for them) lots of star flowers, canada mayflower and fringed polygalas. There were spring azures and Eastern Tiger swallowtails, other little moths, a couple spring darners,harvest men, a june bug, a dog tick, black flies, mosquitoes and of course many ants. There were baby oaks trees, birch trees, maple trees. There were also many galls and mushrooms all over the trees. Other plants along the trail were sweet fern, cinnamon fern, interrupted fern, lots of blueberries,poison ivy, serviceberry, bunch berry, rhodendrons and many more. There were chipmunks everywhere, scolding us as we went by and gray tree frogs were trilling in the trees and as we were by the river there were a couple green frogs glunking. It was a beautiful day and to make it better when I walked into my driveway I find a snowshoe hare under my porch!! Such beautiful sightings make hot afternoons just a little more

Lindera benzoin is a shrub in the Laurel Family, the same family as the plants that produce cinnamon and bay leaves. Like its familiar relatives, spicebush is highly aromatic, with leaves historically dried and used for tea. Spicebush blooms in early spring, and their small red fruits are strongly scented and beloved by birds. You can find the shrub growing in the understory of forests across the eastern and central states. If you are uncertain of your identification, a quick sniff of the peppery plant will quickly confirm it.

Check out this observation by Britnet in the Greater NC Spring BioThon, she spotted this magestic raptor in Haw River, NC: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/47421379

Ospreys are very distinctive fish-hawks, formerly classified with other hawks but now placed in a separate family of their own. Along coastlines, lakes, and rivers almost worldwide, the Osprey is often seen flying over the water, hovering, and then plunging feet-first to catch fish in its talons. After a successful strike, the bird rises heavily from the water and flies away, carrying the fish head-forward with its feet. They can be found near water, either fresh or salt, where large numbers of fish are present. May be most common around major coastal estuaries and salt marshes, but also regular around large lakes, reservoirs, rivers. Migrating Ospreys are sometimes seen far from water, even over the desert.

Like most raptors the Osprey was seriously endangered by effects of pesticides in mid-20th century; since DDT and related pesticides were banned in 1972, Ospreys have made a good comeback in many parts of North America.

Information gathered from https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/osprey

We are very excited about all the amazing things people have been seeing outside! As we all continue to enjoy the outdoors, we want to highlight some exciting things to look forward too and awesome places to checkout. To start, we want to encourage people to check out "Firefly Watch." This is another citizen science that maps where fireflies can be found throughout North America.

Do you want to learn to "speak" firefly and help scientists better understand these amazing bioluminescent insects? Project Firefly Watch is a citizen science project that has been mapping where fireflies flash their lights with the help of citizens throughout North America. You can do this anywhere, even your own backyard.

You can find everything you need at their website, including a chart that tells what kinds of fireflies you have based a pattern they follow when they flash. Check out the link here: https://www.massaudubon.org/g…/citizen-science/firefly-watch

"Las alondras del deseo cantan, vuelan, vienen, van"

Luis Miguel

Today I went on a hike at the Thornewood Preserve. This is 6.5 miles away from my house, so I was excited to see tree's in this new environment. Once I got there, I went straight to the hiking trail and found that a lot of the trees were the same. The tree's in this environment however seemed to grow taller than the trees at Puglas Ridge. While I was there I noticed a lot of oak trees, but I also found some new plants such as the broad-leaved paperbark and the Roses. There were also lots of flowering plants. The trees were easily accessible, and I could find the trees right off the hiking trail. I would describe this community as a woodland plant community. The geography around the hiking trail was very hilly.

I found these plants on the outskirts of a reservoir. It was fairly near my house. The species around this area are a fairly similar color. The specifies seem to be domestic to the land and not planted. The area biome would potentially be a woodland. The biome was park-like and disturbed.

In the spring, the Okefenokee Swamp shrubbery is decorated with delicate rows of tiny, pinkish-white bells. These small flowers are of the Lyonia lucida bush. Although they look and smell like a sweet Valentine’s Day treat, they haven’t always been thought of so fondly, as revealed by a few of their common names: fetterbush, staggerbush and hurrah bush.

© Photographer: William Wise | Agency: Dreamstime.com
iNat observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/45350400

Fetterbush grows thickly and is often entangled with other shrubs and vines, such as the well-armed greenbrier. Being so thick, it fetters the legs of anyone attempting cross the swamp on foot. Fetters were prisoners’ iron shackles in a less politically correct age. In fact, when his weakness was exploited, the Biblical strongman Samson was “bound in fetters of brass to grind in the prison house.” Lyonia’s other common name, Hurrah bush, comes from the exclamatory shout for joy made by the swamp adventurer that finally makes it through the thickets and staggers into a clearing.

Sources:
-https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/lyonia-lucida/
-Schoettle, Taylor. A Naturalist’s Guide to the Okefenokee Swamp. Darien, Sea to Sea Printing and Publishing, 2019.

---

Do you love the Okefenokee? Join the iNat Okefenokee Photography Project and follow the Okefenokee Photography Wordpress blog at https://okefenokee.photography/. If you have an Okefenokee blog post or journal, message me the URL through my iNat profile page and I’ll post it in this project. Thanks for contributing and for be a lover of this great piece of earth, the Okefenokee Swamp! William

Great tits nesting in the sparrow box are finding much of their insect prey in the garden itself, really cool to see the garden provides a significant amount of natural prey.

Bumblebees are visiting the flowering bramble and wolves milk in great numbers.

Saw a hedgehog in the garden for the first time!

This week, I visited the Live Oak Manor Park in Los Gatos, California. This park was about a 10 minute drive from my house and I do not go there very often, so I was not very familiar with the area. There were no hills in the area, everything was on flat ground. Due to the hot weather the park was also fairly dry and was definitely not a riparian area. There is a very large grass area in the middle of the park and I walked along the perimeter of the grass area where there is more dirt and shrubs.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/47518002
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/47518221
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/47518463
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/47518691
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/47518778

Is there something “bugging” a tree in your area? Add a picture of your observation to the iNaturalist app! USFS Forest Health Protection is monitoring forest insect & disease observations & can help id forest health concerns.

Key to group: 1', 2', 3', 5', 8', 9', 13', 14', 15' - Group 11
Group 11: 1', 2', 6', 7', 12', 13', 14
Species: Ulmus Parvifolia (Chinese Elm)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/47519346

Key to group: 1', 2', 3',5', 8', 9', 13', 14', 15' - Group 11
Group 11: 1
Species: Quercus (Oaks)
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/47519671

Kevätleinikit on yhteisnimi kokonaiselle leinikkien ryhmälle (joka on yksi neljästä toukoleinikkiryhmän (R. auricomus s. lat.) alaryhmästä). Kevätleinikit voivat aloittaa kukintansa jo huhtikuun lopulla ja kukinnan huippu on touko-kesäkuun taitteessa. Kukan teriö on usein epämuodostunut: vain pari–kolme terälehdistä on normaaleja, loput enemmän tai vähemmän surkastuneita – joskus kukka ei näytä aukenevan ollenkaan. Kasvin kukinta on selvästi vaatimattomamman näköinen kuin esimerkiksi pari viikkoa myöhemmin kukintansa aloittavalla niittyleinikillä (R. acris).

Vaikka hyönteiset levittäisivät kevätleikin siitepölyä kukasta toiseen, se ei ole hedelmöityskykyistä. Siemenaihe kehittyy apomiktisesti, hedelmöittymättömästä munasolusta siemeneksi, jolloin jälkeläisten perimä on täsmälleen sama kuin emokasvilla. Jokainen emokasvissa tapahtuva perintötekijöiden muutos, mutaatio, periytyy myös jälkeläisiin sellaisenaan. Näin on syntynyt runsaasti toisistaan varsin vähän eroavia pikkulajeja, jotka kuitenkin pysyvät erillisinä. Monet pikkulajit esiintyvät vain pienellä alueella ja samalla alueella esiintyvät kevätleinikit voivat olla varsin erinäköisiä. Kevätleinikki on yhteisnimi hyvin monimuotoiselle ryhmälle, jonka edustajia meillä kasvaa ainakin 200, ellei peräti 300 pikkulajia.

I've been trying to observe my yard through a "communities" lens this past week. I've definitely noticed how important the plant life is to the organisms that live in or visit my yard, and how we as humans are ecosystem engineers in our own yards. For example, my lawn was teeming with visual insect life last week, including tiny American Coppers, Eastern-Tailed Blues, and Cabbage Whites. That is, until my husband decided to mow the lawn, cutting down a good amount of the flowers growing wild there. After that, the littlest butterflies haven't made an appearance, their tiny lawn flowers are gone, and all that's been around are the Cabbage Whites and the Eastern Black Swallowtails (both there for the larger flower nectar sources in my garden and to lay eggs on their host plants currently growing there). It really brought home how even little routine acts that we don't think much of can have a huge impact on the habitats of other organisms, and affect what will live, thrive, and survive there.

Another thing I noticed, also still watching the butterflies in my yard, is that all of the Eastern Black Swallowtails that have emerged from chrysalises under my care in my garden have been males (15 out of the 20 so far). There are females in the area, I've seen them in my yard, and I have their eggs on my fennel as evidence. This made me wonder what sort of abiotic or biotic factors affect whether a caterpillar becomes a male or a female butterfly, and I'd like to research that further. My first thought was perhaps temperature or light, but I'm not sure that either of those factor into gender ratios. More reading up on actual studies as opposed to anecdotal evidence will be needed!

One other thought while I was observing the Eastern Black Swallowtails laying eggs on my fennel involved species interactions. I was trying to decide how to categorize the interactions between them and their host plants (fennel in this case), and at first I was thinking it was mutualism. I began to think back though, and realized that I never really saw any Swallowtails or other larger butterflies on the flowers of the fennel last year. I recall seeing lots of smaller insects nectaring on and pollinating the fennel, including lots of bees, wasps, flies, and Coppers, but definitely none of the Swallowtails. Perhaps their relationship with the fennel is more one-sided, and even considered parasitism? If the plant were smaller, it could be killed by the caterpillars voracious appetites.

Previously considered as Panaspis wahlbergi sensu lato, this species is known from the Oromia Region in western Ethiopia (and may also be present in central Ethiopia). This species can be distinguished from other Panaspis by the following characters:
"eye in the “ablepharine” condition; scales in 24 rows at the midbody; adult coloration of light-colored upper labials lacking round black spots; coppery dorsum flecked with black, separated from dark brown or black lateral coloration by a single row of light-colored scales; and a coppery bronze tail."

Photo by Timothy J. Colston.

Colston, Pyron & Bauer, 2020
10.11646/zootaxa.4779.2.2

Урра! До начала календарного лета успели пройти рубеж 50 000 наблюдений 2020 года! Для истории - 50 042 НАБЛЮДЕНИЯ, 412 ВИДОВ 1 315 ЭКСПЕРТОВ 959 НАБЛЮДАТЕЛЕЙ

Топ-40 по числу наблюдений:

Место	Наблюдатель	Наблюдений	Видов
1	@taisia06nagornaa	1 923	98
2	@elena-votinceva	1 387	140
3	@alinaboksorn	1 350	144
4	@aquacielo	1 143	191
5	@melodi_96	1 126	77
6	@sofya_priezzhih	1 067	112
7	@polinalikhacheva	1 051	97
8	@anisimov-43	1 044	121
9	@mashat	889	55
10	@janems	853	35
11	@alexandrkochetkov	844	162
12	@maxim_ismaylov	836	46
13	@vyacheslavluzanov	774	205
14	@olegglushenkov	747	142
15	@tomegatherion	717	165
16	@zakhar	709	84
17	@konstantinseliverstov	683	135
18	@dinanesterkova	671	103
19	@konstantinsamodurov	651	108
20	@deniszhbir	632	152
21	@kildor	623	135
22	@kakoshkina56	598	104
23	@merlu	565	125
24	@ivanovdg19	558	111
25	@ev_sklyar	549	133
26	@andrewbazdyrev	533	196
27	@woodmen19	528	135
28	@naturalist25016	487	112
29	@anatolykotlov	479	136
30	@sokolkov2002	409	49
31	@dmitrydubikovskiy	405	158
32	@s_chere	399	112
33	@michail_anurev03	393	137
34	@birdchuvashia	372	135
35	@darya_vasileva	355	44
36	@dmitryshtol	348	98
37	@evgeniyaast	336	29
38	@mikvik	331	100
39	@yasha_l	327	47
40	@sundry_divers	326	103

Топ-40 по числу видов:

Место	Наблюдатель	Наблюдений	Видов
1	@vyacheslavluzanov	774	205
2	@andrewbazdyrev	533	196
3	@aquacielo	1 143	191
4	@tomegatherion	717	165
5	@alexandrkochetkov	844	162
6	@dmitrydubikovskiy	405	158
7	@g_kolotin	204	154
8	@deniszhbir	632	152
9	@alinaboksorn	1 350	144
10	@olegglushenkov	747	142
11	@elena-votinceva	1 387	140
12	@vyatka	262	139
13	@michail_anurev03	393	137
14	@anatolykotlov	479	136
15	@konstantinseliverstov	683	135
16	@kildor	623	135
17	@birdchuvashia	372	135
18	@woodmen19	528	135
19	@ev_sklyar	549	133
20	@merlu	565	125
21	@anisimov-43	1 044	121
22	@noyablokov	155	119
23	@nevski	161	117
24	@mirmar_birds	175	116
25	@s_chere	399	112
26	@naturalist25016	487	112
27	@sofya_priezzhih	1 067	112
28	@ivanovdg19	558	111
29	@talyat	188	108
30	@konstantinsamodurov	651	108
31	@evgen_gu	253	107
32	@shukov	246	107
33	@at0m	184	106
34	@svstrizh	172	105
35	@kakoshkina56	598	104
36	@crashfil	160	103
37	@sundry_divers	326	103
38	@dinanesterkova	671	103
39	@dzirt2142	272	102
40	@igor-dvurekov	182	101

Благодарим экспертов !

Место	Эксперт	Идентификаций
1	@michail_anurev03	9 835
2	@svg52	6 717
3	@andrewbazdyrev	5 568
4	@pelagicgraf	5 339
5	@ldacosta	4 623
6	@hschillo	3 714
7	@brodaga59	3 220
8	@stephen54	3 112
9	@roby	3 072
10	@polinalikhacheva	2 831
11	@franciscodocampo	2 755
12	@guillaumeamirault	2 577
13	@trichocereus	2 428
14	@konstantinsamodurov	1 976
15	@alexandrkochetkov	1 717
16	@mirmar_birds	1 624
17	@melodi_96	1 605
18	@eduard_garin	1 440
19	@mc1991	1 273
20	@anisimov-43	992
21	@dallenstein	913
22	@johnascher	842
23	@flycatcherwarblerthrush	826
24	@pwijnsouw	778
25	@elkvorr	724
26	@vyatka	668
27	@herbert74	583
28	@admss	576
29	@birdchuvashia	548
30	@thebirdnerd	510
31	@sylvester_k	493
32	@juhakinnunen	489
33	@vbe01	456
34	@tomegatherion	422
35	@lukasz1979	418
36	@npz	403
37	@elena-votinceva	390
38	@kaupunkilinnut	364
39	@dimoner	360
40	@psweet	359

А также благодарим @kildor за замечательный онлайн-конвертер!

Напоминаем, что конкурс Большой год на iNaturalist проходит под эгидой Союза охраны птиц России, каждый кто встретил за год 100-200-250-300 видов (школьники еще и за 50) получает свидетельство. Благодарим Президента Владимира Мельникова @naturalist25369 и вице-президента Алексея Эбеля @alexeiebel

Прогнозы на быстрое получение ещё одной тысячи наблюдений не сбылись, но всё же мы это сделали!
За эти три недели были загружены данные как минимум по 413 видам, в двадцатке лидеров из них абсолютное большинство - 16 видов, сосудистые растения, вместе с ними ютятся 4 вида птиц. Это заметное понижение разнообразия по сравнению с прошлым замером: ни одного насекомого или гриба не видно в топе.
Популярных наблюдений совсем немного, это два уникальных наблюдения от @phlomis_2019:
Осока Шаровидная https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/46709674
Латук Двулетний https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/46762440
И наблюдение нашего активного участника @taimyr
Перловник Поникший https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/45618357
Закономерно, все популярные наблюдения в этот раз представляют растения.

After hiking the Arctic Circle Trail in the vast wilderniss of Greenland for 9 days we took the ferry to Ilulissat.
We set up camp next to the worldfamous icefjord. We started to explore a little and found a place where the ice and the land formed a natural bay. The ice is full of nutrients and attracts a lot of small fish and krill and these attract the whales again. We just enjoyed sitting there watching 6 whales in the bay for the rest of the day!

The trees in the wooded area behind my house are fully leafed out now, and there is a lot of community activity. Here are just a few observations:
Last week, I saw what I thought was a fisher slinking through the woods. Based on comments from jobird and sophie, I read about it further and I think it was actually a stoat. I saw it again yesterday, carrying a chipmunk, and I still think it’s a stoat. It was about twice the size of its prey. It made absolutely no sound slinking along the stone wall - very quiet and stealthy. I only heard it as it was going through the leaves on the forest floor. I once had to catch a chipmunk inside my house, so I know how hard that is!
There are a lot of bees - different kinds - around the flowering trees right now. There are two different small flowering trees on the edge of the woods. They are near the burrow in the ground that I saw a bee go into one week ago. The bees clearly prefer one flowering tree over the other. It is almost humming with all of the bees, but they are smaller than the one I saw last week in the burrow. And it’s very hard to get a picture. I’ve also seen a few bigger bumblebees in the tree flowers.
I’ve seen and heard the pileated woodpeckers eating insects off of the trees.
I’ve seen a robin pulling an earthworm from the ground.
I also observed an orange-yellow rust on one of the trees at the edge of the woods. It’s on multiple leaves and on a few branches. I don’t know if it’s harmful to the tree, or neutral. The tree looks very healthy right now. It’s the same tree the bees buzz around, but I don’t believe it’s pollen that I’m seeing.

I saw this viper when I was guiding a group in Cyprus. We were hiking a trail in the Turkish part when suddenly we saw this Macrovipera lebetina lebetina. It lay in a small stream caused by a leaking waterpipe next to the rocky path. It was probably cooling itself and waiting for prey to approach.

The snake was +/- 1,5 meters and seemed to me that it just ate something. It did not move at all so some people thought it was dead. I recognised it was some sort of viper and remembered from an expo about venom in the Natural History Museum in Brussels that vipers had a mean venom that causes cell damage. I also learned there venom is something hard to make for animals and they do not like to waste it.

I was extremely euphoric by seeing such an amazing and endangered animal up close. When we wanted to take some pictures I told the group we should not circle the snake but give it some space so it could flee. When it would feel cornered it would certainly strike and in the poor Turkish Part of Cyprus you can not find antivenom. When I was taking these amazing pictures (probably a little bit too close) with my cellphone the snake suddenly jumped lightning fast through the free space we left it. In a split second he was gone. It was so fast it would have been impossible to withdraw if the snake decided to attack.

After our hike we told some locals our story. First they were laughing because 9 of the 10 snake species in Cyprus are harmless for people and they tought we were some exaggerating tourists. When we showed them the pictures they were really shocked. We never gave the location because we were afraid they would try to kill the snake.

When I was spotting birds in Keoladeo NP I heard someone spotted a leopard. I went to the area hoping to get a glimpse of it. Ofcourse leopards are hard to spot and I did not see anything.

Defeated I left the area when suddenly I saw a canine flee. I grabbed my old camara with a 300mm lens and started the pursuit. Everytime I got just close enough to take a picture they noticed me and left.

After 3 or 4 times I decided to change tactics and circled them so I would be downwind. It worked and I found them staring in the direction of my previous spot. I was able to take this picture but soon they noticed me again. The alpha male urinated at a bush and then they left.

So far the Bioblitz has collected 11 turtle observations, with 4 different species confirmed. Here are some of the highlights:

A. Kaplinski's Box Turtle

Josh Stieve's Painted Turtles basking on a log

Anna Gayton's Snapping Turtle

Jordan Jackson's Green Sea Turtle from the Cayman Islands